July 06, 2008: Back to Reality

Since it’s Sunday and I have to turn in a bunch of course journals for my film theory class on Monday I’ll include on of them today, they’re dated based on the day of class they refer to:

“6/09/2008
The books have finally arrived, so now journals and class discussions will include material from the text as well as class/film material we cover. Today’s topic is the coming of sound to motion pictures and the classical film narrative style.
By nature film is discontinuous. In contrast, music is continuous. Therefore using music in film helps to create continuity and help lead the viewer through the film. In 1927 Warner Brothers made The Jazz Singer (Crosland, 1927). This was the first major release of a motion picture with sound (called a talkie). Although only selected parts of the film included sound, this was a big risk to Warner Brothers as it was a brand new technology and not yet proven in mass markets. It was a success, and gradually other studios began releasing “talkies”.

By 1930 silent films only accounted for a fraction of new films being made (although they are still made, just in rare instances). Only a few artists held out like Charlie Chaplin, whose popularity and film styles were such that new technology was not necessarily an improvement for him. Eventually he did make a sound motion picture though (The Great Dictator, 1940).

Another example of artistic resistance to sound in motion pictures was Alfred Hitchcock. We screened a scene from his film The Lodger (1927). In the scene, Hitchcock used specially made ceilings to show ominous footsteps above a family eating dinner. It’s a good example of how good filming techniques can negate the need for sound (for instance, the sound of the footsteps on the floor above the family eating dinner). So the transition to sound films in Hollywood was not unanimous or immediate.

Like the rest eventually Hitchcock like Chaplin made the transition to sound motion pictures. Our film for today was Blackmail (Hitchcock, 1929), Hitchcock’s first sound film. In it Hitchcock uses something called contrapuntal sound, wherein the sound and image are made separately but go together. Also in the film Hitchcock uses the bird as symbol for loss of control and impeding chaos. Note that eventually he even made an entire film dealing with this symbolism called The Birds (1963) (which I screened in school when I was 13 consequently).

The text discusses some of the problems with early cinema. Most of the limitations were technical, but in Hitchcock’s case during Blackmail, his female star had a distinct accent (that was not a problem during silent films). He had to ask his star to lip-sync while another actress read the corresponding dialogue just off-screen. Other problems included poor recording quality microphones, necessitating that actors stand very close to recording devices (Dixon and Foster, 95).

Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, an Grigori Alexandrov (all Soviet Montage filmmakers) wrote an essay on the use of sound in motion pictures (Statement on Sound, 1928). In it they talk about the potential problems and opportunities of using sound in films. They were worried that sound would increase the inertia of montage sequences (Soviet montage relied heavily on quick cuts between shots). If slowed down, montage sequences might not have the same meaning that directors intended. They did think that the contrapuntal use of sound vis-à-vis the visual fragmentation of montage would help the development of a more effective montage (Braudy and Cohen, 371).

In 1930s the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced more rigidly (it had been around since the 1920s). The leading figure in motion pictures censorship was Will H. Hays. This made crime stories, topical material, and sexuality very difficult to film. Studios began to tailor films to meet the moral limitations of the Hays Administration, whereas before studios did as they pleased.
Our other topic for the day was classical film style. There are a few characteristics of this style: Invisible editing, three point lighting, shallow focus, alternating dialogue, and centrality/frontality. The film we screened that depicted these characteristics (as well as sound in motion pictures) was Front Page (Milestone, 1931). An interesting fact is that Howard Hughes financed this film.

The film makes liberal use of dialogue, and while the story pace is slow, cuts between different character’s dialogue is quick.
Although the film wasn’t a class favorite and the sound transfer was bad, it was a very good example of an early sound motion picture and a film that made use of all the classical film style narrative techniques.”